Spyware and adware have become more than a nuisance, threatening privacy and opening users to identity theft. Though there are a lot of anti-spyware products on the web, IE-SpyAD is a quick, inexpensive fix.

Last week, we showed you how to put URLs into the trusted zone to exempt them from security settings. Microsoft Explorer also has the built-in capability of putting web sites into a restricted high security zone, which by default has scripting and ActiveX use disabled. Uncovering spyware serving sites on your own is difficult, at best. The good news is that IE-SpyAd has done the work for you. This is a collection of known spyware purveying web site URLs bundled into a .REG registry entries file. When this file is merged with the registry, it loads the list of sites into IE's restricted site security zone. Loading these URLs into the restricted zone does not block them from appearing, but keeps them from downloading ActiveX or running malicious scripts on your system. The file is maintained by author Eric L. Howes and is built from information culled from anti-spyware vendors and web sites.

You can download IE-SPYAD as a self extracting executable or as a zip file. To use the file, run the .exe or extract the files to a folder. Close any open Internet Explorer windows. Navigate with Windows explorer or My computer to the IE-SPYAD folder where you extracted the files into. The IE-SPYAD setup comes with a command-line batch file that you can run, or you can just double click on the main "ie-ads.reg" file. This will automatically load the file into the registry. To check whether the file uploaded correctly (it's quick and doesn't give a lot of feedback), open Internet Explorer, click on Tools/Internet Options and select Security. Click on the Restricted Sites icon and click on the Sites button. You should see a full list. If there are any URLs that you don't want to be in the restricted zone, then select the URL and click the Remove button.

The archive is free under the GPL license and also comes with a readme file that explains, in depth, how to use the files.. While it won't block pages completely, it does help prevent a rogue site from downloading some spyware to your system.